The Vanguard Group Inc. revamped its research department last December, installing new heads of municipal credit research, taxable credit research, and overall credit research.
Chris Atwine, who has worked on both taxable and municipal bond portfolios during his 15 year tenure at the Valley Forge, Pa.-based firm, was named head of credit research. He will work closely with newly appointed head of municipal credit research Ruth Levine, as well as her predecessor, Steve Kozeracki, who is moving over to head the firm's taxable research analysts.
Atwine said making the changes puts the right people with the right experience in the right positions to best help Vanguard's funds succeed.
"Steve's background is in taxables and I think it is a really good fit for everyone that he is on the taxable side," Atwine said. "Ruth has been a credit analyst for a number of years and has an extensive background in municipal finance. They are both doing very fine jobs for us."
Levine worked as a Vanguard credit research analyst for four years before being named head of municipal credit research. At her previous post, Levine's primary responsibilities involved analyzing muni credits assigned to her watch. Now she will oversee a team of six municipal credit analysts and three credit associates, on top of fulfilling her own credit analysis responsibilities.
"I think having Ruth head up the municipal side is very good," Atwine said. "She has gathered good experience in having many years as a credit analyst and serving in various positions in government entities, and I think it's a good positioning for the group."
Although she is new in her leadership role, Levine said it has been business as usual in the municipal research office.
"The methods we are using for research are all the same, but now we have muni people overseeing munis, which is a little bit different than what we had before," Levine said. "And now our overall head of research has had portfolio management experience in both spheres which is a real advantage."
Prior to her tenure at Vanguard, Levine work as a financial director for the town of Windsor and the city of Milford in Connecticut. After that she went on to spend six years at Fitch Ratings and several years at Evergreen Investment Management Co. as a general government credit analyst.
As head of credit research, Atwine will be responsible for making macro-economic sector, credit quality, issuer, and organizational calls, as well as developing the focus and the direction of the firm's investment strategies. Both Levine and Kozeracki are the real experts in their sectors and will be very involved in the process, Atwine said.
Before taking on the head of credit research title, Atwine said he was lead manager of the corporate sector for three of Vanguard's bond indexes: the short-term bond index fund, long-term bond index fund, and the bond portion of the balance index. Before that he worked on the municipal side, managing the firm's Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Ohio portfolios.
Atwine said Vanguard is looking to take advantage of his experience on both sides of the business to better incorporate the analyst's perspectives into the funds.
"So a lot of my focus in the first few months has been to really try to get [Levine and Kozeracki's] inputs on credit as well as other strategies relating to the macro calls of quality and sectors in the funds," he added "So that is really what I have been working through, and a lot of what I bring to the group are those types of skills."
Atwine was selected to run the research department several months after former head of credit research Michael Praplaski left the position due to illness. Praplaski was named head of municipal research in the mid-1990s and later took on the title of the head of research as well. He passed away in February after a 24-year career at Vanguard.
Kozeracki worked as the head of muni credit research for five years before he was moved over to the taxable side late last year. Prior to December, analysts and associates on the taxable side reported directly to Praplaski and operated without a head of taxable credit research.
Vanguard mutual funds hold $825 billion in assets under management, including $76 billion municipal assets and $176 billion in taxable bonds.
